Screams in the Dark

Part of me is afraid to get close to people because I'm afraid that they're going to leave: - Marilyn Manson

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

"I need to tell you before we go any further." Floyd was slowly getting up onto his hands and knees. "If I ever suspect you have been sleeping with Spence I will have to kill him." A pause while he got unsteadily to his feet. "And then kill you." Back down to his knees again.

"You are in no position to be threatening me Flanders. You are still bleeding. I need your help to get Reid out of here and your co-operation has been duly noted. Let me help you with your wrists."

Back down on his face again. "It wasn't a threat Agent Aaron Hotchner. It was a promise. Leave me – I have bled out too much. Go save him."

Hotch walked back over to Floyd ripping strips off the bottom of his own shirt. "I can't leave you." He took Flanders arms and wrapped the cloth tightly around the soggy silk already there. He noted how Floyd's arms were shaking and his breathing becoming short and sharp. As he rolled him over onto his back again Flanders' eyes rolled back and he started fitting.

Aaron sat back on his heals and waiting for it to stop. This wasn't going well. He could faintly hear someone's cries for help and he had a horrible feeling it was Spencer. "I'm sorry Flanders. I need to go help Reid." He waited until the fit stopped and rolled him onto his side. "I'll come back for you." Hotch looked around the room for a weapon. Anything he could use in hand to hand, but the room had been stripped. Crouching down he placed his fingers against Floyd's neck checking for a pulse, then stood up, "Sorry." He muttered as he walked towards the only door in the room.

He wiped the blood off his face with his forearm and listened at the door. Definite sounds but not right outside. Fingertips on the door now and looking back at the still form laying on his side. With a big sigh he tried the door handle. "I'm on my way Spence." The door opened out into a small dark corridor. One door at one end and two doors in the other direction. A deep breath. Once final look back and he was out of the room and closing the door behind him.

The passage was lit by some strip lighting flickering on and off. Though still dingy it was brighter than the room he had just stepped out of. Again he glanced around for something he could use as a weapon. The odds of finding Reid and getting out were now halved. His heart pounding in his chest he walked carefully towards where he would hear the sounds of – he didn't want to think what it sounded like but someone was in pain, and someone – more than one voice was having fun. The hurting voice was getting quieter and the playful sounds stopped. This worried him. Hotch was running out of time. He was nearly at the first door when the one just further down swung open. He pulled himself quickly back into the alcove of the door way and listened.

Three maybe four male voices. "Thanks for the fun Sissy. You got you a right live wire there girl. Let me know when the others are ready. Threesome always pays better." Throaty laughter and some thigh slapping jokes and japes. Hotch wanted to jump out and kill them where they stood, but he was unarmed. He had to take his time and be cautious.

………………..

Spencer lay bleeding and broken on the dirty mattress, his hands stretched out above his head secured with cuffs to the ring in the wall. He was laying on his side shaking with shock and pain rocking slowly and making strange keening sounds. The attack had finally finished and someone had thrown a blanket over him. He could feel something creeping out of his nose and along his cheek and blood and drool foamed pink from the corner of his mouth and mixed with the blood from his nose and ear. He would have cried if he could. But there was nothing left now.

He tired to cut out the sound of Sissy talking. Planning his future. Taking and counting her money. He felt the blanket being taken away again and could sense the pressure on the bed behind him as someone sat down. Sissy. She was talking to herself and running her hands over him. Touching him – kissing his bruised and bloodied skin. Running her tongue over his neck and sucking on his earlobe. He couldn't move. He couldn't do anything but rock and moan from that deep dark place he usually reserved for the horrors Floyd inflicted upon him.

……………….

The door was slightly open which was the first thing so far going in Hotch's favour. He stood and looked first. Seeing what and who he could see in the room. He could hear Sissy talking. Sounded like she was talking to a pet dog or cat or something. Cooing words of comfort. He pushed the door slightly not knowing if it would make a dreadful creaking sound or not. Point number two in his favour.

Aaron couldn't see what she was doing. She was laying sideways on the bed and Hotch was a few steps in when he realised she was with someone. Someone thin. Someone he knew. His stomach twisted in a knot which threatened to make him throw up and his heart pounded even harder as he stood and watched the woman fondling and stroking Reid.

Quickly before anything could change the situation Hotch was there. The crook of his elbow around her neck pulling her backwards off his youngest team member. Off the young man who was the BAU genius and was now a battered broken whore.

Sissy kicked and shouted and tried to bite and scratch but the horror of what he was now looking at surpassed any pain she might have been giving him. With an arm pulled up behind her back he had two choices. Subdue her and tie her up with something, or just kick her out of the room and get to help Spencer. A pair of wire binders laying on the crate table was what he needed and used. Once Sissy had her hands secured to a pipe running down the wall Hotch was free to help Spencer.

Sissy screamed and shouted abuse, but he ignored her threats as he picked up set of keys and moved over to Reid, hoping they would undo the cuffs holding him to the bed.

There was an old damp towel and with tears threatening to cloud his vision he took it and gently began to wipe the blood off Spencer's skin. Attempting to return to him some dignity and unlocking the cuffs as he went. He moved the towel over his arms and along the side of his chest. He was pitifully thin. Hotch didn't realise how under weight he had become. Reid was good at disguising it, or he was poor at noticing it.

He wrapped grabbed a blanket off the floor and was going to wrap Reid in it and carry him out of the building. At first Reid tried to fight him off. Big terrified eyes stared into nothing as he flailed with his arms trying to get Hotch off him. It was like wrapping a wriggling baby in a bath towel. Awkward but possible. He carried on with the calming voice where Sissy had left off.

"Spencer it's me, it's Aaron. I am getting you out of here. It's going to be alright. Just relax. I've got you now." He was shocked at how little Reid weighed as he picked him up off the disgusting bed and now tears of deep pain and sorrow left Hotch's eyes as he walked down the passage in the direction the men had gone.

"Nearly out now." Holding the youngest close to his chest. "It's over."

And from behind him the screams started. At first he thought it was Sissy claiming her second wind, and then he realised. It was his name being screamed.

……………………

Floyd opened an eye. He felt drugged or drunk. He opened the other eye. He had chomped down on his tongue as some point. Slowly he lifted his arms up and looked at the blood soaked bandages. "What the hell happened? Where am I?"

He rolled over to be looking at a pair of boots. Big boots. Floyd felt the support which was already covering a broken nose give way as the boot made speedy contact with his face.

Flanders managed to get to his knees and was using the wall to balance to get to his feet. A blade slashed across his face. The next attack he managed to defend and got the knife stuck in his hand. He stood and looked at it as the blades owner pulled it out again. Slashing and jabbing at his neck and chest.

And as a boot started to make hard fast contact with his hip and upper leg and then groin, he called for Hotch. The shouts of anger suddenly turning to gasps and gurgles as the knife slid up under his ribs, and then the boot cracked against his jaw and the world went dark.

…………………..

Hotch heard someone call his name, but it suddenly stopped, and now Spencer was wriggling and going hysterical in his arms. His agent the most important thing right now. He left Floyd to his fate and hoped he would be able to come back for him as he promised.

………………….